President Trump used a primetime address Thursday night to release material through the White House in Washington that he said showed China stole 220 million American voter files beginning with the 2020 election.
The China allegation and the voter files claim landed just months before November’s midterms and drew immediate pushback from Democrats, U.S. intelligence findings, and even a conservative adviser involved in reviewing election documents.
Highlights
- Donald Trump claimed China stole 220 million American voter files in what he called the largest compromise of election data in history.
- A 2021 National Intelligence Council assessment found with high confidence that Beijing did not try to influence the 2020 election outcome.
- ABC, NBC and CNN declined to air the speech on their primary channels late Thursday.
- China denied interfering in U.S. presidential elections.
- Conservative adviser John Solomon said U.S. intelligence has zero evidence that a foreign power flipped votes in 2020, 2022 or 2024.
The White House said the newly declassified material showed what Trump called “the largest compromise of election data in history,” while Beijing denied interfering in U.S. presidential elections.
Networks skipped the speech as Trump pushed disputed China voter-file claim live
Image credits: Getty Images
Several major networks, including ABC, NBC, and CNN, said late Thursday that they would not carry the speech on their primary channels. Some Democrats had urged a TV boycott, citing fears that Trump would spread misleading claims about the U.S. election system ahead of the midterms.
Trump said the documents showed Chinese government access to voter files with names, addresses, and other sensitive data. He also alleged that voting machines and ballot-counting systems remain “extremely exposed to attack,” citing intelligence the White House declassified and released. CBS News reported on the primetime speech as the White House made the election-related claims public.
But a March 2021 National Intelligence Council assessment reached a sharply different conclusion. That assessment found with “high confidence” that Beijing did not try to influence the outcome of the 2020 election because Chinese officials viewed neither a Trump nor Biden win as worth the risk of getting caught meddling.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington also rejected Trump’s charge Thursday night, saying Beijing “has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”
Image credits: The White House from Washington, DC / Wikimedia Commons
During the speech itself, Trump directly called for a federal investigation into how the information had allegedly been concealed. “Today, I'm asking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA, to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the cover-up, and to file criminal charges if appropriate against these people,” he said.
China denied interference while critics cited a 2021 intelligence finding in response
Image credits: Daniel Torok / Wikimedia Commons
Democratic reaction came quickly and bluntly. Sen. Mark Warner wrote, “Trump's shocking 'bombshells' about China are totally bogus,” according to Democracy Docket.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called Trump “a feeble, unhinged conspiracy-peddling 80-year-old failed President,” according to NBC News.
Rep. Joseph Morelle, a New York Democrat, told C-SPAN, “It's the rantings of a pathetic, unserious person... the president knows virtually nothing about the American elections system. He has no idea what he's talking about... there is no basis in fact to almost anything he said.”
Image credits: Biden White House Archived / Flickr
Trump also revived a long-debunked claim involving Muskegon, Michigan, and a large-scale voter registration operation. He said FBI Director Kash Patel would reopen the investigation. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Trump “chose to rehash long debunked and baseless conspiracy theories,” according to The Detroit News.
Even one conservative figure tied to the election-document review did not back the most explosive interpretation of the files. John Solomon told reporters, “I only know the intelligence community has zero evidence that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, 2022 or 2024.”